CD Player Problems

[Prince Atom]

Hey guys, I need some advice with my CD player. I got it this summer, so it's relatively new; I've chiefly been using it in the car, and not with headphones. Recently, I tried listening to it with 'phones and I noticed that I only get output through the right earphone. In the car, I don't notice this problem; but it's come up with other CD players I've had over the years.

I only get stereo with the headphones if I put my thumb on the plug and hold it in a certain manner, which is tiring and doesn't leave me with both hands free.

Is this a headphone problem, or a problem with the jack of the player itself? Should I go get a new pair of headphones, or take it by the store and use my coverage to repair it?

Thanks!

TWK

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Either is possible - though the headphones are more likely to fail than the plug on the CD player itself. If you can borrow another set of headphones to use with your CD player, or try to use those headphones with some other device, you could probably figure out which one was the issue pretty quickly.

When you say that you listen to it in the car without headphones, what do you mean exactly? Is this a boombox with speakers, or do you plug it into a jack in the car?

 

[Prince Atom]

I got a car conversion kit -- basically, instead of headphones there's something that looks like a cassette tape that goes into the tape player and carries the signal, and sometimes a plug that fits into the cigarette lighter port to give power.

It's because I'm too poor to own anything other than a 13-year-old Corolla with a tape deck instead of an actual CD player. I'm afraid, though, that the market's going to dry up (although I have nothing other than a suspicion that CD decks for cars are going to get cheaper and cheaper).

AFAIK it's illegal to drive while actually wearing headphones, is it not?

TWK

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

AFAIK it's illegal to drive while actually wearing headphones, is it not?

Most places, yeah. So does the tape thingy that you put in the tape player connect to the CD player via the headphone jack? If it does, that kind of makes it seem like it's more likely to be your headphones that are the problem. Still, I'd try to double check before running out and buying a new set of headphones.

 

[Prince Atom]

Yep -- it's basically headphones for your car.

OK. I guess headphones are more fragile than the players themselves.

Thanks for your help!

TWK

 

[trancejeremy]

I used to have one of those. Every time I would get pulled over by a cop, I would have to explain how it worked and that I wasn't listening to headphones.

Anyway, it's probably the headphones themselves. The same thing has happened with the headphones from my Panasonic cd player I bought last year. Which is annoying, since they are really nice headphones

 

[Ranger REG]

Is this a headphone problem, or a problem with the jack of the player itself? Should I go get a new pair of headphones, or take it by the store and use my coverage to repair it?

It's possible that your headphone plug is the problem. Ask someone willing to loan you their headphones for testing. If it works on theirs, then you may need to get a plier and slightly bend the tip of your headphone plug to ensure contact inside the port.

And by slightly, I don't mean bend the tip 90 degrees.

 

[Prince Atom]

Well, crud. It ain't the headphones. I tried a pair that I borrowed off a friend; they worked in his player, but not in mine. So it looks like it's the jack, and not the plug.

Grrrrr.

The good side is, I have a warranty on it from Best Buy. The bad side is, I don't know when I'm going to get out there before the end of the year....

TWK